CONVERGENCE is a now becoming a buzz word in facilities management (FM) as technological advances have been increasingly expanding the scope of work of facilities managers. The era of convergence is marked by the introduction of more machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies into the realm of facilities management, resulting in automation of various FM services and process. The integration of automation in facilities management is particularly important in light of the evolving and expanding requirements of customers. Indeed, with convergence comes the growing need for greater automation capabilities.
Automation in itself delivers significant advantages that strongly support convergence of services under the scope of facilities management. Real-time data processing, flexibility to integrate other forms of automation systems, enhanced security features and reduced overhead and energy costs are just a few of the important benefits of automation.
With the growing concern for environmental issues and challenges, automation also stands out as an ideal solution to streamline carbon emissions and boost efficiency in operations. Automation is not really just about deploying machines to perform various facilities management tasks. More importantly, it is also about integrating people, processes, business systems and information into a seamless system that enables facilities managers to deliver a truly efficient, cost-effective and comprehensive FM solution.
Leading facility management specialist Imdaad has been aggressively adopting automation technologies into its portfolio and this has helped it significantly expand its market scope, while boosting the level of satisfaction of its customers. Being a time and labour-intensive service industry, facilities management definitely benefits immensely from automation technologies. Moving forward, we should be looking to explore more opportunities to automate various processes and aspects of facilities management. Moreover, with the government and private institutions actively investing in more large-scale real estate development and infrastructure projects, we can expect automation to increasingly play a vital role in ensuring that we can deliver premium facilities management services that cater to the distinct needs of such complex facilities and structures.
Automation has certainly served as a catalyst that has helped stretch the scope of facilities management services, which now covers areas in remote monitoring, inventory management and predictive maintenance, among others. Automation technologies are also useful in other basic tasks such as monitoring and controlling the environment across large facilities and buildings. In addition, automation is ideal for managing utilities such as water, wastewater, gas, oil, steam, and energy, allowing clients to be more efficient in such energy-intensive operations, creating even more value-added benefits.
An important breakthrough that has led to major advances in the continued adoption of automation technologies is the development of software applications that are designed specifically for facilities managers. Such applications help facilities managers effectively and efficiently plan, monitor and manage facilities and assets, while streamlining entire operations. With FM software applications, it becomes a lot easier to prepare and produce reports, which provide critical information that help businesses develop relevant strategies and help them gain much better control in terms of asset management and financial projections. Moreover, data generated by FM software can prove to be invaluable in helping companies make more meaningful business decisions. With all its advantages, there are certain factors that need to be carefully considered when adopting automation in the overall facilities management plan. Some of the important criteria to be considered include the projected scale of operations and workload volumes as these allow facilities managers to determine an acceptable time frame for ROI (return on investment). Based on Imdaad’s experience, automation can deliver significant benefits as long as it is carefully planned and executed by the facilities manager.
Imdaad, a Dubai World company with a prestigious client list and many landmark projects to its name, offers world-class outsourced management services in facilities management, FM consultancy, specialist facilities services, and employee welfare activities, each headed by highly qualified and experienced management experts. Imdaad is also taking more aggressive steps to adopt cutting-edge technology solutions as part of ongoing efforts to help clients further reduce energy consumption.
The introduction of more advanced energy-saving tools and technologies is a logical step forward towards sustaining the growing adoption of facilities management in the UAE and across the Middle East region. It has been Imdaad’s strategy to constantly identify the latest technological advances in the area of energy management knowing fully well that it has greater flexibility to control energy-related operating expenditure. Imdaad currently offers power monitoring and savings services as part of its integrated facilities management solutions. The value-added offering provides periodic monitoring of energy consumption, evaluation of service delivery programmes, processes and methods, and operational improvement studies. Its client list includes prestigious names such as Nakheel, Jafz (Jebel Ali Free Zone), DP World, Dubai Customs, and Limitless, covering landmark developments such as The Palm Jumeirah, The Gardens, International City, Jumeirah Islands, Burj Dubai, Al Barari, the Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone and The Dubai Mall, among others.
